Creative Critical Reflection (The End Has Arrived!)

        Hey guys! Here's my Creative Critical Reflection showing myself explaining my views on the project that Hayden and I have worked on and created for almost 2 months. 

I'd like to thank everyone who has taken their time into viewing my blog. This was a great experience for me, and I hope to have one like this in the future!

The Finished Product

Here is our finished film opening!

Here's the link to it if it doesn't work:

        https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-yb8Fabe8U428nMqkK3_s2_qCzx7unD1/view

I'm working on my Creative Critical Reflection, and that will be my final say on this blog!

Group Meeting Pt. 2

        Today, we met with groups for the second time to talk about the advancement of our projects. This time though, it was with a different group.

        This group meeting definitely wasn't as impactful as our last one for myself, but that's only because we were at that point in the project where we already have done enough so that we're past the point of advice for changing up our scripting or filming. I still did get some great and impactful advice, though.

        The advice that I got was for the sound technique. As I spoke about the film, my group members reminded me about the fact that we need to create a foley for some of the sounds we want to put into the film, as some of them won't come out too well without it. For example, the sound of the footsteps would need to be heard, but clearly and without the sound of wind hindering the overall sound, so we'll be cutting off the sound and making our own sounds to go along.

        It doesn't seem like much, but if there was one thing that Hayden and I needed to focus on more, it was definitely the issue of sound production and incorporation. I still view this group meeting as a complete success, as I also got to see other people's thought processing and creative mindsets in the process.

        We're filming the next part soon, so I'll be back once that's done. See you!

Filming Pt. 2 Preview

        As we're reaching the time for us to finish the filming aspect of this project, Hayden and I have planned out the rest of our filming schedule. 

        For the next part of filming, we are completing our T.V. show scene some time at the end of the week, possibly in the weekend. This is where Hayden and I will take the roles of two sports broadcasters, reporting the injury of the athlete, whom which we have now named, Steve Bayless. We didn't actually plan on being a part of the film at first, but then we decided that it was okay for the simple scene of sports broadcasting. 

        What we've done is we've created a script for our broadcasting, with the script showing exactly what we will be saying when we report the news. Here it is:

   H: We just received news regarding the top high school track and field prospect in the country; Steve Bayless.

   F: Apparently he’s experienced an undisclosed injury while practicing.

   H: Bayless is a very talented athlete and holds scholarships from many major colleges and universities.

   F: As a senior in high school, Bayless holds the record for the fastest 400m in the country and placed first in his state championship. Nationally, Steve Bayless is the number one ranked recruit in the country in terms of track and field.

   H: as we’ve said before, the injury is still undisclosed. In the past, there have been many talented high school athletes who have experienced severe injuries that’ve derailed their careers.

   F: and with him being a senior, it’s possible that these scholarships may be rescinded

   H: it certainly isnt a good sign that no one knows what the injury is yet, as it could be a simple hamstring pull or something even more devastating.

   F: we can only hope that the injury isn’t too severe as Steve Bayless is a very talented runner with a bright future ahead of him and we wish him luck on his path to redemption.

        We plan on memorizing the scripts, but not exactly word-for-word, as sports broadcasters usually have scripts in front of them to base their news off of and such, so we will have the scripts in front of us and look to it a couple of times.

        As for the rest of our filming. we plan on having the scene where the athlete is actually watching the sports film on the weekend too, possibly the beginning of next week at the latest. Our editing will be done shortly after that, with the completion of the film production being the day after.

       I also found out that there was another group meeting coming tomorrow. More updates coming soon!

FIlming Pt. 1 (Analysis)

        As you guys know, we finished the filming of the track part of our film, but I never actually explained the details of each shot in our scene.

        All of these shots were filmed at West Broward High School's track. The first shot that we ended up filming was the establishing shot of the whole track scene with the protagonist running on the track. We filmed this shot from the top of the bleachers, which were next to the track. We then made two shots showing the athlete running "towards" the camera, "past" the camera and "away" from the camera. We did this by first making a shot of the athlete running towards the camera, then starting another shot with him running away from it. The next shot involved a side angle of the athlete as he was running, which we made by having Hayden jog next to Vicente and record him from the side as this happened. We then made a point-of-view shot of the athlete, with Hayden having the camera put slightly above Vicente as he jogged. This was a little harder than we imagined at first, but we ended up getting it done.

        The most difficult shot for us to film was the close shot of the athlete running, showing his face. We needed to be in front of Vicente while he was jogging, which meant that we had to have the camera ahead of him at the same speed. I initially thought of an idea where Hayden or I would run beside Vicente and put the camera in front of him, but that didn't work too well. We ended up going to backpedaling in front of Vicente while he was jogging, which ended up working pretty well. One issue that may or may not be is the shakiness that was sort of encountered in that shot. It wasn't the best, but it was the best we could do with a shot like that.

        Our last two shots of the scene were of the athlete getting injured while jogging in a long shot, and medium shot showing the athlete injured on the ground after. We changed the last shot a little, though. We ended up showing the athlete lying on the ground injured, instead showing him sitting and holding his leg.

        That's all for now! Will get back to you guys soon.

Filming Pt. 1

        After completing the planning process, Hayden and I have finally started filming!
       
        We actually did this last week, I just decided to post about it now.

        Our initial plan was to film on Cypress Bay High School's track, as it was recently getting some construction done on its track, and was a familiar environment for the both of us, as it's located at our school, and has been run on by the both of us. The only issue with this was that the construction of the track was taking longer than expected, causing us to look to a new location. 

        The Tequesta Trace Middle School track was always an option for us, but it wasn't our most satisfactory one. The track wasn't exactly the newest in terms of looks or structure, and the fact that there are little to no bleachers nearby made the chances of us being able to film our establishing shot the way we wanted to were low, while the chances of giving our protagonist the look of an important athlete were too.

        Ultimately, Hayden and I came to the conclusion of going to West Broward High School's track. One thing about West Broward's track that was surprising, but great, was the renewed track that was recently created. It created a much better look than Tequesta Trace's track would've, and further improved the look of the film itself. The bleachers weren't as large as we expected, but they were still good enough for the establishing shot of our film. We ended up filming the whole first scene of our film, which involves the athlete practicing on the track and eventually getting injured. 

        Throughout this next week, we plan on working on the completion of our film. Look out for updates!

Film Title

The film has a title! 

        Our film has been coming along for the past month, but without a name. The opportunity to create a name has been there, but this long wait was intentional, as we wanted to have the idea and plots for our film laid out before we even tried to think of a name. But now that our film opening is laid out, both physically and mentally, so is our film name.

        Our film is supposed to be the illustration of a scenario in which someone has to redeem their self after a woeful event, with the odds of making this happen unfavorable. The plot of the film opening ends with the audience questioning whether or not the protagonist is able to come back from his unfortunate injury. All of the athlete's training and hard work has been brought to this, a gruesome injury that could possibly end his career. 

        When somebody redeem's their self, they are doing something that compensates for the bad aspects of something, a certain situation. It could be because they made an error, committed some act of wrongdoing, or just got into a situation that started out bad. The injury of the athlete must be redeemed only by an outstanding comeback. The goal of the athlete must be to perform the act of redeeming.

         The act of redeeming, "Redemption", is the title we chose for our film. More updates coming soon.